1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method for processing by heating, as well as an equipment for same. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for processing by heating a variety of powder-like and/or granular substances such as materials of medicines, cosmetics, or foods, or grains, as well as an equipment for same.
2. Description of Relevant Art
The present applicant has already proposed, by Japanese Patent Publication No. 46-34747 (published on Oct. 12, 1971), "a method for producing swollen foods by a heating method of a flash system and an equipment for same", in which a heating process of grain is performed by use of superheated steam.
In such conventional art, there was employed a system in which a substance to be processed was heated by only the heat of a hot gas adapted for flashing to transport the substance, so that the quantity of gas for transportation was required to be much in comparison with that needed in ordinary cases of air transportation. Exemplarily, in cases of air transportation without heating, the mixing ratio of the quantity of a substance or substances to be transported to that of a transportation gas or transportation gases was found within a range of 2 to 10, whereas in conventional art of such system as described such ratio was approximately within 0.5 to 0.7.
In such conventional art, therefore, associated individual equipments such as a superheater, a heating tube, and a cyclone were enlarged in size, thus becoming high in cost, while enlarging the size of a process line as well, which was disadvantageous also in view of available space, and besides, in cases where a hot gas or hot gases was or were recirculated, there was resulted the enlargement in size of a blower, thus raising the cost of power as well.
Although, in addition to such conventional art, there can be enumerated, as conventional art in which a substance to be processed was heated to be processed by flashing with a hot gas, other examples such as "a texturing method of proteinic substances" in Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-23971 (published on Aug. 17, 1979), "an equipment for the texturing of proteins" in Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-24865 (published on July 2, 1980), and "a method for processing foods and an equipment for same" in Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-42743 (published on Sept. 21, 1983), these methods and equipments, in which also a hot transportation gas was the heat source in any case, fundamentally had similar problems to such conventional art as first described.
Further, the present applicant has already proposed, in Japanese Patent Application No. 55-158869 (filed on Nov. 13, 1980), an art in which an annular layer of a substance to be processed was formed on the inner wall of a pressure vessel before heating to process the substance, whereas also such conventional art, in which such substance was made in the form of an annular layer with a stirring machine, had shortcomings such as due to breakage of the substance to be processed and/or that the efficiency of heat exchange was not very high.
The present invention has been achieved, in view of such problems in conventional methods for processing by heating as well as in conventional equipments for same, to effectively solve these problems.